LOVE AND MARRIAGE In Durban in early 1970, Biko met I must say, he Nontsikelelo (Ntsiki) Mashalaba Steve Biko Foundation was very politically who came from Umthatha in the Transkei. She was pursuing involved then as her nursing training at King Edward Hospital while Biko was president of SASO. a medical student at the I remember we University of Natal. used to make appointments and if he does come he says, “Take me to the station – I’ve Daily Dispatch got a meeting in Johannesburg tomorrow”. So I happened to know him that way, and somehow I fell for him. Ntsiki Biko Daily Dispatch During his years at Ntsiki and Steve university in Natal, Steve had two sons together, became very close to his eldest Nkosinathi (left) and sister, Bukelwa, who was a student Samora (right) pictured nurse at King Edward Hospital. here with Bandi. Though Bukelwa was homesick In all Biko had four and wanted to return to the Eastern children — Nkosinathi, Cape, she expresses concern Samora, Hlumelo about leaving Steve in Natal and Motlatsi. in this letter to her mother in1967: He used to say to his friends, “Meet my lady ... she is the actual embodiment of blackness - black is beautiful”. Ntsiki Biko Daily Dispatch AN ATTITUDE OF MIND, A WAY OF LIFE SASO spread like wildfire through the black campuses. It was not long before the organisation became the most formidable political force on black campuses across the country and beyond. SASO encouraged black students to see themselves as black before they saw themselves as students. SASO saw itself Harry Nengwekhulu was the SRC president at as part of the black the University of the North liberation movement (Turfloop) during the late before it saw itself as a Bailey’s African History Archive 1960s. A founder member of both SASO and the Black student organisation. Consciousness Movement Harry Nengwekhulu (BCM), he was one of Bikos closest friends and comrades. Strinivasa "Strini" We emphasised Moodley, another pioneer the fact that students of the BCM in South Africa, were a part of the oppressed was a journalist and community – their parents playwright and a close Independent Newspapers, Durban worked in factories, comrade and friend of Biko. As one of the accused in the were domestic workers. We SASO/BPC trial, he encouraged students to go into served six years on the communities and help with Robben Island. building extra classrooms and clinics. Strini Moodley The first SASO General Barney Pityanas Students Council, held in July 1970 relationship with Biko in Durban elected Barney Pityana as dates back to Lovedale College president to succeed Biko. As and the University Christian Bailey’s African History Archive publications director, Biko became Movement which Pityana headed during the late 1960s. Also a founder editor of the SASO Newsletter, where member of SASO and BCM, together he wrote prolifically under the with Harry Nengkwekhulu he pseudonym, Frank Talk. led the BCM in exile. One of the Durban conference resolutions stated Themba Sono that emancipation depended was ousted as SASO Bailey’s African History Archive entirely on the role black people President in 1972 because he supported close co-operation themselves were prepared to play. between SASO and some This doctrine of self-emancipation homeland leaders. SASO was defined as Black Consciousness advocated a radical approach which was an attitude of towards the homeland leaders, mind, a way of life. calling them puppets of the Pretoria regime. One of the key objectives of SASO was to address what they termed black peoples inferiority complex. As Frank Talk, Biko wrote the following inspired by Frantz Fanons Black Skins, White Masks: It becomes clear that as long as blacks are suffering from an inferiority complex - a result of 300 years of deliberate oppression, denigration and derision - they will become useless co-architects of a normal society. Hence what is necessary as a prelude to anything else that may come is a very strong grassroots build-up of black consciousness such that blacks can learn to assert themselves and their rightful claim. Frank Talk – Black Souls in White Skins? SASO Newsletter, August 1970 This and all subsequent editions of the SASO newsletter were banned in July 1976. In October, SASO was declared an illegal organisation under the Internal Security Act. Photos: Unisa Archives 1972-1976 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT The Black Consciousness Movement consisted of a group of intellectuals who, until 1976, concentrated on ideas rather than mass mobilisation. They wanted to conscientise black South Africans, to mobilise them psychologically. Steve Biko and his comrades argued that oppression was as much psychological as political. They believed that it was vital for black South Africans to break the pattern of subservience and to develop their own sense of self-worth. Black people had to become self-reliant and self-confident and draw on indigenous cultural and political traditions. When you say, “Black is beautiful,” you are saying, “Man you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being.” Biko, I write what I like Photo: Bailey’s African History Archive The first step therefore is to make the black man come into himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with a pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth. This is what we mean by an inward-looking process. This is the definition of Black Consciousness. Biko, I write what I like SASO defined Black Consciousness as follows: ¥ Black Consciousness is an attitude of mind, a way of life. ¥ The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic humanity. ¥ The black man must build up his own value systems, see himself as self-defined and not as defined by others. ¥ The concept of Black Consciousness implies the awareness of black people of the power they wield as a group, both economically and politically and hence group cohesion and solidarity are important facets of Black Consciousness. ¥ Black Consciousness will always be enhanced by the totality of involvement of the oppressed people, hence the message of Black Consciousness has to be spread to reach all sections of the black community. SASO Newsletter, September 1971 A SPIRIT OF SELF-RELIANCE SASO and the Black People s Convention argued that blacks should realise that they alone can determine their own destiny. Community development, community involvement and a spirit of self-reliance became the cornerstones of Black Consciousness. Winnifred Kgware (extreme left) was UWC RIM Mayibuye Archives elected president of BPC at its first National Congress in December 1972. Addressing the congress is Mamphela Ramphele. After Biko was expelled from medical school, he worked for the In June 1972, Biko was Black Community Programmes (BCP) Steve Biko Foundation expelled from the University which included education, health of Natal Medical School. and welfare projects. At this time, he played a central role in forming the Black Peoples Convention (BPC), an umbrella body of black Zanempilo Community consciousness organisations. Health Centre, in the rural The BPC was formally launched community of Zinyoka outside Benjamin Pogrund in Pietermaritzburg in July 1972 King Williams Town, was a very to fill the political vacuum successful health project. A created by the banning of the brainchild of Biko, the clinic ANC and the PAC more than helped to improve health a decade earlier. conditions in the surrounding eastern Cape villages. BPC aims to UCT Libraries unite the One of the black people of South driving forces Africa with a view to behind the success of Zanempilo was Dr mobilising the Mamphela Ramphele masses towards their (right), a close comrade struggle for liberation and intimate friend of Biko. In 1978, she gave and emancipation birth to Bikos son, from both Hlumelo, a name that psychological and means the shoot that grows from a dead physical oppression. BPC Constitution tree trunk. A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE “Who can speak the heart of the black man, who can sing the rhythm of the black man, who can paint the suffering of the black man and who can act the pain, the desires, the loves and hates of the black experience?” Strini Moodley, SASO Newsletter, May/June 1972 After the imprisonment, bannings and departure for Omar Badsha Between 1957 and 1966, exile of African intellectuals the list of black artists who left and artists in the 1960s, the South Africa included Es kia Black Consciousness Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Arthur Movement contributed to Maimane, Todd Matshikiza, Bessie a cultural renaissance in Head, Cosmo Pieterse, Can all art forms in Themba, Nat Nakasa, Mazisi the 1970s. Kunene, Bloke Modisane, Arthur Nortje, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Dennis Brutus, Alex La Guma, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. Many never returned. There is no doubt that the pulse of the arts in the National English Literary Museum 1970s was provided by the performing arts, especially theatre. Theatre emanated from the unions, the Black Consciousness Movement, the collaborative efforts of Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Gibson Kente, Barney Simon (above left) and “Today the theatre a multitude of university and of revolt has established its community groups. Bailey’s African History Archive validity. The theatre picks Requiem from Brother X, out and accuses the with Maynard Peters and Vic Mafungo at University of perpetrators of evil. It Natal TECON Theatre Group. denounces the oppressor, it rejects war and it The Afro-Jazz music advocates revolution.” of Malombo in the early SASO Newsletter, June 1971 Bailey’s African History Archive 1970s is considered by some as the first original jazz music to come out of South Africa.